This project is the results of the needs indentified in the 5 participating schools from Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Spain: the need for inclusion, the need to vary the teaching methods so that they correspond to the characteristics of today's students, the need to carry on with the existing cross-curricular approaches and the need to involve our students in current global issues. These needs have been highlighted by using SWOT analysis and surveys. The project is aimed at strenghtening inclusion at our institutions through project-based learning, in response to the growing number of students who are at risk of exclusion for different reason. The project involves students aged 6-15 and their teachers, together with local organisations (universities, NGOs, educational stakeholders). It uses project-based learning methodology, which helps the students to meet important learning goals, find a solution to a meaningful question to solve a problem, explore phenomena using scientific practices, engage in collaborative activities to find solutions to the driving question, uses learning tools and other scaffolds to support students’ learning and create tangible products that address the driving question. We plan one short-term training event for our teachers in the fields of PBL and inclusion in order to ensure a balance between the knowledge and skills of the participating staff and the quality of the activities of the project as well. The participants will work on 5 modules derived from the Sustainable Development Goals, which represent the connection with the real world: "Know disaster, no disaster!" (Climate change), "Slow the flow, save H2O!" (Clean water and sanitation), "Know your trees" (Life on land), "An ocean of plastics" (Life below water) and "Product tales" (Responsible consumption and production). Moreover, the activities of the project will focus on creating inclusive classrooms by recognising and valuing diversity, developing positive attitudes towards diversity in our learners, involving parents, learners and other relevant individuals in creating an inclusive learning environment, assessing individual learners in a variety of ways that allow them to demonstrate the progress they are making and supporting the students in identifying, addressing and assessing learning goals based on reasonable adjustment, designing teaching and learning materials which cater for multiple learning styles, using group work which foster the use of each student's own capacities. We plan to deliver 5 booklets which contain the detailed description of the projects made by the students. In terms of intangible results, we forsee an enhanced sense of belonging to the school culture and trust in the students' capacities and potential, enhanced cooperation at EU level, increased professional satisfaction in our teachers, enhanced PBL, ICT and foreign languages competences. On the long term, we intend to use the results of the project on a daily basis, in organising elective classes or answering the new national requirements in our countries.
This project was the result of the common needs identified in 4 schools from Croatia, Lithuania, Romania and Spain: the need for inclusion, the need to vary the teaching methods so that they correspond to the characteristics of today's students, the need to carry on with the existing cross-curricular approaches and the need to involve our students in current global issues. The project was aimed at strengthening inclusion at our institutions through project-based learning, in response to the growing number of students who were at risk of exclusion for different reasons. The project involved students aged 6-15 and their teachers, together with local organisations (universities, NGOs, educational stakeholders). It used project-based learning methodology documented by the participating teachers, which helped the students to meet important learning goals, find a solution to a meaningful question to solve a problem, explore phenomena using scientific practices, engage in collaborative activities to find solutions to the driving question, uses learning tools and other scaffolds to support students’ learning and create tangible products that addressed the driving question. We carried out one short-term training event for our teachers in the fields of PBL and inclusion in order to ensure a balance between the knowledge and skills of the participating staff and the quality of the activities of the project as well. The participants were involved in 5 modules derived from 5 Sustainable Development Goals, which represented the connection with the real world: "Know disaster, no disaster!" (Climate action), "Slow the flow, save H2O!" (Clean water and sanitation), "Know your trees" (Life on land), "An ocean of plastics" (Life below water) and "Product tales" (Responsible consumption and production). Moreover, the activities of the project focused on creating inclusive classrooms by recognising and valuing diversity, developing positive attitudes towards diversity in our learners, involving parents, learners and other relevant individuals in creating an inclusive learning environment, assessing individual learners in a variety of ways that allowed them to demonstrate the progress they made and supported the students in identifying, addressing and assessing learning goals based on reasonable adjustment, designing teaching and learning materials which cater for multiple learning styles, using group work which fostered the use of each student's own capacities. We created 5 booklets which contain the detailed description of the projects made by the students. In terms of intangible results, we obtained an enhanced sense of belonging to the school culture and trust in the students' capacities and potential, enhanced cooperation at EU level, increased professional satisfaction in our teachers, enhanced PBL, ICT and foreign languages competences. The most important gains of this project were a developed competence in using project-based learning, the huge progress in using online tools and a complete change in understanding digital learning, not to mention sustainable development. The latter can be expressed in using a variety of ICT instruments in class and online and being able to organise interactive online activities in a multitude of manners. On the long term, we intend to use the results of the project on a daily basis, in organising elective classes or answering the new national requirements in our countries.